A Student’s Perspective with Yvonne Gimbert

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Transcript:

Intro: Welcome to Becoming a Sleep Consultant! I’m your host Jayne Havens, a certified sleep consultant and founder of both Snooze Fest by Jayne Havens and Center for Pediatric Sleep Management.

On this podcast, I’ll be discussing the business side of sleep consulting. You’ll have an insider’s view on launching, growing, and even scaling a sleep consulting business. This is not a podcast about sleep training. This is a podcast about business building and entrepreneurship.

As a pediatric nurse, Yvonne has years of experience providing compassionate care to families coping with the illness of a child. She guides parents through their journey using a family-centered approach to assess needs, implement care plans, and create optimal healthcare outcomes for their children. It’s what she loves, and always has. Yvonne is eager to draw on that experience when working with families as a sleep consultant to promote healthy sleep habits in a way that aligns with parents’ goals.

Yvonne looks forward to finishing the course, building her business, and working with families to promote healthy sleep habits that will allow families to live their best lives.

Jayne Havens: Yvonne, I am so excited to chat with you today. Welcome to the Becoming a Sleep Consultant Podcast.

Yvonne Gimbert: Thank you so much, Jayne. It’s so nice to be here.

Jayne Havens: So before we get started, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Yvonne Gimbert: So I am a wife. I’m a mom. I have two kids. Alyssa is 12, and Nathan will be 9 in just under two weeks. I’m a former pediatric nurse. And when Nathan was three years old, I decided to be a full-time stay-at-home mom. And now, fast forward to today, I’m a CPSM student working my way through the course, and absolutely loving it.

Jayne Havens: Why did you decide to get trained to work as a sleep consultant?

Yvonne Gimbert: Yeah, that’s a good question. So when my husband and I, back at the end of last year, we started talking about the possibility of me going back to work. Honestly, I really resisted it at first. I had become very comfortable as a stay-at-home mom. I knew that I didn’t want to go back to work at the hospital. But that’s all I had ever done, right? When I graduated from nursing school, I started working in the hospital. I did that until I was a full-time stay-at-home mom.

And so the thought of finding something new and starting this whole new career felt really scary and overwhelming. But I decided to just go on a bit of a soul searching journey. I started to get really discouraged, because I had this list of requirements that at the time seemed impossible to fulfill. I wanted something that was flexible. I wanted something ideally that I could do remotely, and I wanted something that I was interested in that I felt good about doing. And I wasn’t finding anything.

Then back in March, my husband’s best friend sent my husband a link to your course, to the website, and said, “I think Yvonne would be really great at this.” And so I started looking into it and had this lightbulb moment of, oh, my god. I think this is it. So I hopped on a call with you. After I searched through many different courses, I hopped on a call with you. And a few days later, I signed up for the course.

Jayne Havens: I love that. It’s interesting that you say you had this list that you didn’t think you were going to be able to check all the boxes. When I was listening to you say each one of them, I’m like, yep, sleep consulting is that. Yep, sleep consulting is that. So you really were able to check all of the boxes. I love that. So you enrolled in — I just checked. You enrolled in mid-April, and you’re about three quarters of the way through the course. How’s it going so far? Are you enjoying it?

Yvonne Gimbert: I’m loving it. Yeah, I really am. I love the content, first of all. I knew that it would be interesting. But it’s really, it’s well-organized. It’s well thought out. There’s a lot of different ways that you can learn. There’s the text. There are the books that go along with the course, the videos, the assignments, all that. And I think it really does a good job of helping you to take all the information that you’re learning and apply it. So yeah, I’m really enjoying the course. I’ve heard you say that you want to put the best sleep consultants out on the market, and I do think you’re doing that.

Jayne Havens: Yeah, that really truly is my mission. I think that sometimes in the online training sphere, programs get into this situation where they just want to enroll more students, just get more people in, just grow the program and make more sales. And really, I have a different mindset around all of this.

The way I see it is, first of all, my reputation is at stake. Right? So if I’m putting sleep consultants out into the market who aren’t doing the best work, that’s not a great reflection on me. Right? So I’m fully committed to turning out the best and the brightest and the most highly-skilled sleep consultants on the market.

Then I also think that that just ends up working in my favor. Because when people are out there doing really good work and they’re like, “Oh, where did you get trained? You know your stuff,” they say, Center for Pediatric Sleep Management. Then that comes back to me. So that’s always been my philosophy. And thank you for acknowledging it.

Also, I’m sure you’ve heard me say. I feel like CPSM is this living, breathing, growing organism. Like it’s always expanding. One of my favorite things to do is to add new curriculum and to continue to teach my community. I have people who enrolled in CPSM in 2019, and they’re still learning from me five years later. How cool is that? I don’t know. I just love it.

Do you have a favorite component of the course? Was there a particular training that you enjoyed the most? Or maybe it’s the Facebook group? I don’t know.

Yvonne Gimbert: I feel really nerdy saying this. Actually, I’m currently working on the final assignment, and I’m actually loving it. Which if you’d asked me a few months ago if I would say that I loved it, I would have said heck no. That’s crazy. But I’m really enjoying taking all the information that I’ve learned and applying it in a way that I think is going to be really practical for my business. Like, I’m actually going to use this in my business.

It’s also kind of this milestone of feeling like, I’m so close. Right? I’m almost there, and that feels really good. Just to look back at all the progress I’ve made, a few months ago, I had no idea how to write a sleep plan. And it’s coming actually pretty easy, which just shows me that I’ve been well-prepared for it. So I’m enjoying that a lot more than I thought I would.

Jayne Havens: That’s great. I’m wondering how you’re juggling your time. I mean, I know your kids are school-aged children, so they’re not home with you all day. My children are about the same age, so I get that. But still, it’s tricky to be working on something and then also prioritizing your children. It’s something that I personally struggle with as well.

As we’re recording this podcast, my daughter is on the couch behind us. My son is upstairs. Because they’re in between school and camp. And I’m navigating trying to be a working mom but also being a present mom at the same time. So I’m wondering what that’s looked like for you, how you’re juggling both your training and still maintaining your top priority, which is I know to be present for your children.

Yvonne Gimbert: So a couple of things about that. My brain works best first thing in the morning when my house is quiet, and everyone is asleep. I’ve been setting my alarm between 5 and 6 AM and just getting up and knocking out an hour to two hours of the coursework. I find that I’m excited to do that. I actually look forward to doing it. So that’s been how I’ve been doing it so far.

My kids are, they’re still in school. They go till the end of June. So I’m also kind of fitting in, during the day while they’re at school, an hour here, half an hour there. But I love that I can do it on my own schedule and still do the things that I was doing before, like going to yoga and dropping the kids off and picking them up and all that.

The other thing I’ll say about this is, it’s been really eye-opening to see how capable my kids actually are. I don’t give them enough credit. And when I first started talking about going back to work, it was a real concern for me. Like, how are my kids going to handle it? Is this going to be hard for them?

It’s actually been the opposite. We have worked as a family. They have some more responsibilities, and that’s been really cool. I think we’re all functioning better because they see that I’m loving what I’m doing. They’re willing to pitch in. I think that’s good for kids to actually, as they get older, to give them more responsibility. And so it’s worked differently than I thought it would. I thought it would be this big deal and this challenge. The kids would just not be as supportive as they have been. So that’s been really cool to see.

Jayne Havens: I love that. That makes me so happy. I’ve actually had a very similar experience, because I started my business when my children were much younger. And as they have gotten older, my business has matured. In the beginning, it was like a little bit of a side hustle. And as they grew, my business grew alongside them. And I think it’s actually been a really beautiful thing for them to see me doing something in the professional space.

They only ever saw me as a stay-at-home mom, that mom who was first in line in carpool with the best snacks and would take them to their tennis lessons or whatever. And now for them to see me in a more professional environment and to be doing things that are challenging my own brain, I see that it has their gears sort of churning in their own minds.

My almost eight-year-old daughter asked me all the time, she’s like, “What should I do when I grow up? What should I be?” Really watching me has her thinking like, oh, I can be creative. I can start something on my own. I think that that’s really valuable for us to give our children, for them to see us start fresh, start something new, do something that feels challenging. I think it encourages them to rise to the occasion and accept their own challenges, which is super cool.

On that note, I was thinking about those typical thoughts and feelings that sometimes we have when we’re starting on an entrepreneurial journey, like overwhelm and self-doubt. Are these feelings that are at all creeping into your mind, or are you not even there yet because you’re just enjoying learning?

Yvonne Gimbert: No, I am there. I mean, this is something that I think we all struggle with at times, having those feelings of overwhelm, self-doubt. But at the beginning of my journey, I feel like I had actually more of that. I was all in on the sleep consulting. I knew I could be a great sleep consultant, but I was worried about the business piece. I was looking at all of these beautifully-built websites and these great businesses that people have probably spent years building and kind of going, oh, my gosh. I have to get there. And I have to get there now.

And so when I signed up for the course, I had this moment of, oh, my gosh, what have I just done? How am I going to do this? I kind of realized that I was looking at it from the wrong perspective. I was looking at the business that was already built and just saying I have to get there.

I thought of this Lego analogy. I didn’t make this up, but I heard it somewhere. My son loves to build Legos. He builds these Star Wars ships that are like 400 plus pieces. I thought, okay, if I gave him one of those Star Wars ships and then gave him, on the other side of the table put all the pieces and just scatter them on the table and said, okay, make that look like that, he would feel really overwhelmed. And so how do we start when we don’t know how to get somewhere?

We just start building one block at a time. And so I really tried to keep that in mind. Because what I’ve realized is, I can always figure out some small way to move myself forward. And if I keep doing that over and over, it’s this taking consistent action. If I keep doing that, one day, I’m going to look back and see all the progress I’ve made and be so proud of myself. And so that’s how I’ve tried to manage those feelings. It’s just kind of ignore them and just focus on what I can do right now, what I can do today, to get me where I want to go.

Jayne Havens: I think that that’s a really brilliant mindset place to be. I really do. I think that most brand new entrepreneurs are not savvy enough in their minds to get to that place. So I think that that’s very commendable that you’re already there. So good job for you.

Yvonne Gimbert: Thank you.

Jayne Havens: I also think that those thoughts are transferable to our clients, right? I often think about how our journey through entrepreneurship is not too much different than the road our clients take as they are sleep training their babies or toddlers, right?

If you think about where they are at the start and where they’ll be at the end, it feels like such a long distance. But really, if they are willing to make small changes, put one foot in front of the other, do something different today from what you did yesterday in order to make moves in the right direction, then all of a sudden, you start to get momentum. You start to get confidence. You start to see results that all snowballs and make everything easier.

So I think it’s impressive that you’re already sort of having those thoughts that are going to keep you moving in the right direction. It’s going to position you, I think, to be successful both in business and in supporting your clients, which is really incredible.

Yvonne Gimbert: Thank you.

Jayne Havens: I’m wondering if you plan to position yourself as a nurse in your sleep consulting business. I think that moms really trust nurses. And I’m wondering if in your marketing, if on your website, are you going to introduce yourself as a nurse? Have you thought about that?

Yvonne Gimbert: I have. I do. Yes, I do think that I will talk about my experience as a nurse. I think that nurses, they’re positioned well to transition or add sleep consulting to their repertoire. For multiple reasons, I think they’re actually quite similar, right?

Nursing is a helping profession. You’re helping your patients kind of go on this journey from being sick to getting healthy. In sleep consulting, we’re helping our clients go from not sleeping well to living their best lives. It’s also similar in that, as a nurse, I had to assess my patient’s needs, come up with a plan of care and then implement that plan of care, which sounds a lot like what we do in sleep consulting of assessing client’s sleep, creating the sleep plan, and then helping the parents implement it.

So I think I will. You know, I want to be very clear that when I’m working as a sleep consultant, that I’m not giving medical advice. But I do think that I have an advantage being a nurse. I do think so.

Jayne Havens: I think we have a lot of certified sleep consultants who listen to this podcast, but we also have a lot of aspiring sleep consultants listening too. I’m wondering what you would say to somebody that’s sort of on the fence about getting into this field. I know that you’re right on the cusp of getting started. But you were there just a few months ago. You were sort of questioning this and wondering if you were going to jump in and get started. What would you say to somebody that’s sort of where you were a couple of months ago?

Yvonne Gimbert: I would say just go for it. If this ignites a passion within you, if this excites you, you owe it to yourself to go on this journey. You will be supported. I can tell you that. The community, the CPSM community, is very supportive. You have to choose your passion over your fears. You can let your fears be that loud voice in your head telling you that you can’t do it, or you can just listen to your passion and say I will figure it out. So I would say just go for it. You won’t regret it.

Jayne Havens: I love where your mind is in all of this. I just think that you’re so — I think the hardest part about entrepreneurship is getting your mind in the right place. Literally, 90% of it, I think, is overcoming those fears and those doubts, those limiting beliefs. And so many people, I literally talk to people all day long who are so passionate about sleep training. They’re so passionate about helping families and yet, they’re so scared to even just try to put themselves out there to do this work that is so incredibly rewarding and so needed. There are so many families everywhere that are exhausted and in desperate need of this type of support, and yet people are afraid to try something new.

And I get that. Because we all have that, right? I’m not sitting here saying that I’m not scared. I am scared every single day. Even though I have a thriving business and it churns, but I still am scared to do new things. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t do them. Right? I think that we have to show up scared and do the things scared, and take those baby steps in the right direction. And all of that just leads to traction and momentum and reward, you know. Not just financial reward but heart-centered reward, if that’s the thing.

Growing a successful business, I think, feels great financially. But it also feels really great in your heart and in your soul when you’re doing really meaningful work, and you’re being financially rewarded for that. I just think that there’s nothing better. I don’t know.

There are so many people that are stuck in jobs that they can’t stand. And I just feel so fortunate that I get to sit at my kitchen table in my hoodie and my leggings, not wearing a face of makeup, supporting families through life-changing experiences, like taking them from rock bottom to really thriving, not just surviving but thriving. I don’t know. I just feel so lucky that I get to do it. And so I love connecting with people like you who get it and who are doing it too. So I don’t know. That’s my rant. That’s all I got to say.

Yvonne Gimbert: I was just going to say I find that the things that seem so scary, when you actually just take the plunge and do them, they’re not as scary as you thought they were going to be. So that’s what I’m finding as I’m moving along through all this. I’m kind of pushing myself to do things that make me nervous, that feel scary. And they’re never as bad as I thought they were going to be. Then that builds confidence, right? You gain confidence as you move along.

Jayne Havens: I can’t wait for you to get started. I will be on the lookout for that final assignment in my inbox. I’m wishing you success and luck and all the things to really get out there and have a wildly successful business. I have every bit of faith in you. And we’ll have to circle back around in, I don’t know, six months or a year and do where are they now and get an update and see how you’re doing.

Yvonne Gimbert: Yeah, I would love that.

Outro: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Becoming a Sleep Consultant Podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode, it would mean so much to me if you would rate, review, and subscribe. When you rate, review, and subscribe, this helps the podcast reach a greater audience. I am so grateful for your support.

If you would like to learn more about how you can become a certified sleep consultant, head over to my Facebook Group, Becoming a Sleep Consultant or to my website thecpsm.com. Thanks so much, and I hope you will tune in for the next episode.